e a peculiar smile
struggled from under his black dab of a mustache, got as far as the
base of his nose and there collapsed.

My duty was now clear. Senor Garlicho, for some reason unknown to me,
had waited until his option had expired and had then sent Onativia in
his place. This wiped out the past and made a new deal necessary--one
which included the price of erection on the reef, a point which had not
been raised in the former negotiation.

"All right," I said, "you shall have the estimate. What you want is the
cost of erecting a structure like the one here in the plans. Well, if
it was to be put on our Florida coast, where I think the conditions are
somewhat similar to those you describe, I would advise you to add about
one hundred thousand dollars to the cost of the ironwork."

"Is that safe?" Again the smile worked itself loose.

"Yes," I replied, "if you don't lose your plant too often by bad
weather. We have warnings of our coast storms and can provide against
them. I don't know anything about yours--what are they like?"

"They come suddenly and without warning," he rejoined; "typhoons,
generally, with the tiles rattling off the roofs and the natives
hugging the cocoanut trees." With this he turned to the plans again.
"Better add another twenty thousand--I want to be safe," he said, in a
tone that showed me he had at last made up his mind.

I added it, marking the sum on the memorandum which Mawkum had given
him.

"Now, please put that in writing over your signature. I'll call
to-morrow at ten for the document. Good-day."

When he was well down the corridor--we waited really until we heard the
down-chug of the elevator--Mawkum looked at me and gave a low whistle.

"Add another twenty! What do you think is up? That Bunch of Garlic is
working some funny business, or he wouldn't have sent that brigand up
here."

I ruminated for a moment, walked to the window and took in the brick
wall, the clerks and the clock tower. Frankly, I did not know what
Garlicho was up to. It was the first time that any passenger by the
Tampico, or any other steamer, from any quarter of the globe, had asked
either Mawkum or myself to add one penny to the cost of anything. The
effort heretofore had been to cut down each item to the last cent. Was
the ivory-tinted gentleman going to build the lighthouse at his own
expense out of loyalty to President Alvarez, the saviour of his
country, and then donate it to the Government, using